Isaacson: Kane returns to playoff spotlight

Melissa Isaacson is a columnist for ESPN.com, espnW.com and ESPN Chicago. The award-winning writer has covered Chicago sports for most of her 32-year career, including at the Chicago Tribune, before joining ESPN in 2009, and has also covered tennis since 1986.

CHICAGO -- Wearing nothing but a scruffy beard and his hockey long johns, Patrick Kane was his old happy-go-lucky self before Game 5 of the Western Conference finals Saturday night, celebrating his triumph as the last man standing in the Blackhawks' customary pregame war of one-touch soccer outside the team dressing room with a joyous victory dance.